Colossians 3:1-6 (NET)
1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, 3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ (who is your life) appears, then you too will be revealed in glory with him.
5 So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, evil desire, and greed which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
The apostle Paul’s exhortation to “put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth” seems to me is done in only way: starvation. What is true of our physical body I think is also true of this nature that belongs to the earth: it will die if we deny it food. That is to say, through the Holy Spirit’s power, the more we starve a temptation to death by not entertaining it’s thought-suggestions for even a split second, the weaker it will get and the easier it will become to wave off thought-suggestions the next time, and then the next time and so on until whatever it is we were feeding is dead.
